obsessed with characters being saved against their will. being knocked unconscious and carried away from a danger they won't stop trying to fight. being shoved through a portal somewhere far away and safe right before it closes. trying to self-sacrifice only to have the exact person they're trying to save swap their places at the last second. getting the only cure to the disease or curse bc the person administering it loves them too much to give it to anyone else, including themselves. being thrown to safety right as they had accepted dying. someone else they thought had gotten to safety running back to drag them out of danger. it's so fucking tasty

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

i looooove characters who are sacrificial lamb coded. characters who have never lived for themselves. characters born to be a tool, a weapon, a sacrifice, all of the above. a character raised by the heroes to save the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. a character raised by the villains to end the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. characters who are denied personhood so they can be used as tools instead. characters who never even had a chance to be people because they were shaped into something else from the moment they were born. characters who were born to die.

no more cold and calculating i want warm and calculating. i want characters who use deductive reasoning to figure out whether their friend would like a wool or cotton quilt based off of their lifestyle, career, hobbies, and habits. i want "your nails are often chipped because you work for a law firm as a typist for this company which notoriously underbudgets their IT department, so ive bought you a keyboard cover that will not only prevent manicure damage but is also sensory friendly because I know you dislike certain clicking noises". i want characters who figure out their friends entire schedules and social battery levels just by examining who only use that info to know when the best time is to hang out with them. i want characters who create elaborate, supervillain level schemes just to get their hands on some collectible they know their best friend wants. most of all i want characters who do not use intelligence and reasoning skills as a reason to be cruel but as a means to be kind

folklore is for the girls who can't bring themselves to close the last page of a book. for the girls who hate the cold but love the feeling of snowflakes upon eyelashes. who wear sweaters to cover up their aching, who notice every single little detail, who sit in solitude and silence and observe their loved ones. for academic validation girls who love the moon. for girls scared to get drunk, because of the fear that they will lose everything if they lose themselves.for the oldest sisters. girls with not a lot of friends but the ones they do have are considered family, who appreciate the little things, who tell their mothers everything. girls who love their families with their entire soul and just want their grandparents to be proud of them, and know that they are loved. girls who are 'mature for their age' but miss growing up, who sneak stolen glances and feel like second chances, girls who feel forgettable and retreat into themselves wondering if anyone will care. girls with quiet voices, who don't know how to dance, who worry over everything. for the introverts. for the ones who long to be understood with their whole hearts so much it hurts. girls who hope to recieve a love letter at least once in their life. girls who like rain. girls who want to say i love you but the words get caught in their throats. girls who forget about their stuffed animals for a month or so and then hold them tight while sleeping to apologize. the girls who don't know if they're an augustine or a betty, who love and love with all their hearts but end up brushed aside, wrists broken and bruised from fighting their feelings. girls like me.

Spoke to a gen z person the other night and apparently the young folks don't know about the very legal sites from which you can access public domain media (including Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and other Victorian gothic horror stories)?

Like this young person didn't even know about goddamn Gutenberg which is a SHAME. I linked to it and they went "aw yiss time to do a theft" and I was like "I mean yo ho ho and all that, sure, but. you know gutenberg is entirely legal, right?"

Anyway I'm gonna put this in a few Choice Tags (sorry dracula fans I DID mention it though so it's fair game) and then put some Cool Links in a reblog so this post will still show UP in said tags lmao.

Spreading the news to my followers - if you weren’t aware of this before, here’s the link to Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenberg is a gigantic collection of books that are in the public domain.  You can read the books through the site or you can download them in various formats so you can get the format you prefer for your eReader of choice.

It is free. 

It is legal.

I was reviewing the list of the top 100 books downloaded yesterday and I saw a fair few that I had to read for college classes - so if you’re a college student and your professor assigns you to read Plato or any number of older works, check here before you buy a copy.

I reread the Anne series several years back - they were free through this.  I need to reread Pride and Prejudice at least once a year, and my e-book version is from this.  Someone recommended Jekyll and Hyde to me a few weeks back and I got a free copy from this.  When I went to Haworth on my last holiday before the plague times, I brought books by the Bronte sisters with me to read or reread that I downloaded from here.  It’s a great resource.

Yes yes yes! I was honestly so flabbergasted that this young person hadn't heard of the gutenberg project! It's been around for AGES, maybe longer than the kindle has? And it's such a huge project and wonderful resource! It used to be a household name (or maybe that's just my family, thanks to my dad being a cheapskate nerd [affectionate]). I was so glad to be able to share this resource and others with them though, and I wanted to make sure no one else was missing out!

If you look at the first reblog from me I also recommended a few other resources, most of which were from www.archive.org, home of the Wayback Machine! They run openlibrary.org, where you can check out ebooks of some public domain titles! They even have the Bone series by Jeff Smith!

And archive.org itself has all kinds of public domain media including music and movies! For Dracula fans, here's a radio show adaptation of the book, starring Orson Welles! And here's a 1920 movie adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," starring John Barrymore, the grandfather of Drew Barrymore!

I'm so excited to see people falling in love with classic media through Dracula Daily! Let's keep that fire blazing!

Also, if you can't handle reading things, check out libirvox.org! it's a free audio book project taking public domain works and people doing free audiobooks! there's a lot of great stuff on there, but it takes things in the public domain and makes audio books out of them!

it's a super nice project, and you can find some really nice readers there!

Also don't think a book is old because it's in the public domain

lots of writers and publishers are prepared to waive future profits for entirely petty reasons

because of this the entire works of Philip K Dick [petty writer who found himself with lots of hangers on during his life] and HP Lovecraft [his publisher - who was his wife and hated him] became public domain on their death

Sherlock Holmes entered public domain this year, it's always worth checking because you can save a fortune

and the more popular the classic - the more likely someone has uploaded it

hey, don’t cry. one half flour one half yogurt knead into dough and fry for easy flatbread and dip in balsamic vinegar, okay?

After three batches, my findings so far:

I’m gonna be eating these for a month

This actually works?? Two-ingredient bread??

I gotta try it.

That's...naan.

That's naan?

*runs to Google*

HOLY SHIT THAT IS NAAN! HOW DID I NOT KNOW NAAN WAS THAT EASY TO MAKE?

this is one of those rare easy bread recipes that also works with gluten free flour! the yoghurt helps with structural integrity. you may want a pinch of xanthan gum if your flour doesn't come with it mixed in. i like to mix some rosemary into the flour to have a herby naan, since i can't have garlic.

VIDEO ESSAYS 2 (PT. 1)

The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory what happens to youtubers after they “expire?” the problem with aesthetics QUEERING THE SLASHER: SCREAM why you hate learning Heterofatalism: WHY straight women aren’t okay. How David Fincher Uses Pop Music Dunkirk - The Art Of Fear THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015): Style Vs. Substance Homosexuality Is Not Moral And Here’s Why Alternative self help is brainwashing you. How To Harm Your Audience - Wonder Woman 1984 Dark Academia: The Corruptive Allure of Aesthetic Beauty TW: trigger warnings aren’t helping you How CAGE THE ELEPHANT Overcame Their Fear of Music Netflix’s Decisions are a Very Funny Joke What Makes Disney Villains so Gay? Succession Deserves the Hype the problem with teen dramas Miss Congeniality’s Mixed Messages | Good & Bad Takeaways The Lotus Blossom Stereotype - Dangers of the Asian Fetish How To Do A Fight Scene Why the Media NEEDED Joker to Fail you’re not s3xually liberated, you’re 16 Why You Should Stop Using Times New Roman Why a movie like Who Framed Roger Rabbit will NEVER be made again The Babadook: The New Physicality of Ghosts in Horror Get Out — A New Perspective in Horror Why The Shining is Terrifying The Importance of Horror (Why Horror Movies Don’t Suck) Vaping: A Lesson in Irony I don’t have a dream job: self-help scam or revolutionary concept? How To Do A Plot Twist Hunger Games clones and how they work Why The End of Jenna Marbles Is The End of Authenticity This Angel YA romance killed my ability to feel joy or love tiktok is kind of bad for fashion The Problem with Museums Is TikTok Hurting the Music Industry? I HATE “Guilty Pleasure” Music (A Rant) our obsession with glowing up Triumph of the Will and the Cinematic Language of Propaganda Talent Belongs to the Beautiful - How Media Manipulates your Tastes Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy NIETZSCHE: THE MAN WHO VIBE CHECKED GOD KANYE EXPLAINED: A Guide To Bipolar Disorder & Creativity Sleep is Just Death Being Shy This Is NOT How People Talk Men In Black International — How to Build a Toxic Hero How Spielberg Shoots A Film At 3 Budget Levels

i want to be a sweet and friendly girl but there’s all this anxiety. and the horrors

and rage

yeah and also the rage

stargazing, the smell of earth after it rains, misty mornings by the sea, earl grey tea, lavender, the smell of old books, charcoal drawings, braids, long conversations late at night, quiet afternoons spent listening to music, baking, owls, winter, open windows, getting so absorbed in a book you forget the world exists, snow globes, watching milk swirl into coffee, getting up early to watch the sunrise, the sound of rain on a rooftop as you try to fall asleep, keeping a journal

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

Might I add:

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child

The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

The adventures of a space roomba

Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)

I don’t know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head

hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):

I am in love with you /p

Adding Faceblind Prince Charming and Cinderella

21. The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

22. The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

adding the Doctors Without Borders one

I LOVE tumblr storytime, so here’s a bunch more your weekend reading. Enjoy!

24. The Queen with Three Cursed Children

25. Tiny Dragon with one coin hoard

26. Haunted house

27. Shark hero was about to go rogue

28. Grandma lives in the woods comic

29. A Different Aftermath comic

30. Battery (microstory but I love it so much)

31. It’s A Date comic

32. Supervillian kidnaps rival’s kid and they want to stay

33. Narrative Town

34. I have been hired to clean the wizard tower comic

35. Robot Apocalypse

36. The Statues That Do Not Weather

37. Kushiel

38. Tooth Fairy

39. Alien abduction

40. Felonious wish-granting

41. When humans met actual space orcs

42. Space cousins

WAIT REBLOG THIS VERSION INSTEAD

The Supervillain Wrangler definitely needs to be on this list.

The hopeless romantic urge to look at the moon and stars, forever.

my five year plan? sit in the sun as long as possible. take millions of pictures of sunset. smile more :) hold doors open for people. take a selfie with a penguin. read 237362808 books watch 33563737 movies. be brave & be strong. befriend the neighborhood kids and tell them stories. dont worry about falling in love. FOLLOW JOY.

i love sunsets, i love discovering new music, i love stargazing, i love walking, i love the smell of earth after it rains, i love coffee, i love the smell of books, i love quiet afternoons, i love open windows, i love the underlying flavors in food, i love poetry, i love freshly baked bread, i love painting my nails, i love flowers growing through cracks in the pavement. etc etc

there is love in this story. even in its most brutal end. there is love in the story. how? where? here: here in me telling it to you, in spite of everything. because of everything.

no salvation and no turning of the tide. that's not the point anymore. we were here. oh so briefly. but we were here. we tried. do you know what i mean?

annotating my books gives me a unique sort of literary validation i don't think we as a society talk enough about. like here is my favorite book i annotated staying up for days and nights. here, my words are attached with the writers forever on these pages now and i think that's just so beautiful